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In the Studio

Riddle Cards

When my granddaughter, who lives in another city, was 7 years old, I began creating and sending her hand-drawn postcards with a riddle. One side had the riddle, the other side, the answer. This fun went on for 5 years on birthdays, holidays and anytime I felt inspired. Here are a few of my favorite riddle cards:

Star-Telegram Classifieds Annex / Tarrant Savings Association Bldg. , 21 x 17 inches, oil on canvas, 2007. "Googie" is an architectural term for futuristic, space-age design popular from the late 1940s to the mid 60s. This 1960 building at 600 Taylor Street, Fort Worth, Texas, was a daring example of the style and reflected the the vitality & optimism of the time. It was ready to be saved & restored, but didn't quite make it.

Selkies, 9 x 12 inches, oil on canvas, 1995. Selkies are mythological creatures found in Scotland, Ireland & Iceland. Selkies are seals who shed their skin to become human. They are known as gentle creatures who are beautiful when in their human form.

Apples, 8" x 10", oil on canvas, 2002. One spring, each of our kids picked a fruit tree to plant in our yard. This painting shows the first harvest of my son, Dillon's apple tree. We made a pie from these apples, YumYum! Even better was the taste when eaten fresh. I'd forgotten what a fresh-off-the-tree apple tasted like.

Super Heros, garage sale series, 8"x10", oil on canvas, 2004 (Garage Sale Series). Another west-side Fort Worth garage sale. Mostly toys, 1980's stuff. Toys that had seen action such as powder burns, missing limbs. Some of the figures were reinvented as variations on a Frankenstein theme. Naratives must've played-out in the kid's imagination. Similar to what happens when a director makes a movie. Molding and shaping the actors to tell the story.

I am Garlic, 12" x12", oil on canvas, 2009. I loVe garlic. Ate it raw like an apple as a kid. Grew it in the garden to encourage the roses. Garlic emits a sulfer substance in the soil the roses enjoy. When my kids were younger, we made the "One and Only Garlic Spaghetti" when there were State Occasions such as, an Open House, an award, a performance or Science Fair at school. We ate a whole lot of garlic, still do!

Radio, garage sale series, 8" x 10", oil on cavas, 2004. Garage sales are great places to find bargains and they tell stories too. The objects for sale reveal what was accumualated and now no longer wanted.This garage sale was in the Fort Worth neighborhood, Arlington Heights. It looked like all this stuff from the 1940's to 1980...a mishmash of practical stuff that was no longer being used anymore.

Meadowbrook Time Pieces, garage sale series, 8" x 10", oil on canvas, 2008 (Garage Sale Series). Garage sales are great places to find bargains and they tell stories too. The objects for sale reveal what was accumualated and now no longer wanted.

Abbey & Tracy, oil on canvas, 12" x 18", 1996. An early painting that was truly frightening to paint due to the water. It scared the shit out of me. "Come-on" I thought "do it anyway". I then moved out of the way and let my senses lead me.

A non-migratory bird found at Tandy Hills and throughout the southwestern US and Mexico, the Greater Roadrunner, is a large, fast bird, approximately 23 inches long and clocked at a speed of 20 miles per hour. It generally prefers sprinting to flying. An opportunistic omnivore, it feeds on insects, reptiles, including rattlesnakes, small mammals, spiders & snails. An isolationist, except when breeding, they are monogamous and mate for life. Mating season is spring & summer. The male woos his sweetie-pie with a solo-dance perfomance and an offering of fresh-caught food.

This 2011 comminssion to create a stained glass window for St. Matthew's Lutheran church in Fort Worth transformed the 1966 modern-nordic space. I drew 7 doves to represent the days of the week and creation. The blue ribbions at the top are the morning breezes, 6 representing joy. The amber and yellows show the sun rising, illuminating the sweet night.

In the early 1990's I began an 8-year mural project for the library at South Hi Mount Elementary School. Our two girls attended school there. By chance, I decided to stop by on the first day of school to see how the mural was holding up.

Another image I painted years ago from the South hi Mount Elementary School library mural. The library had a pet turtle that would interact with the students. He started out small but grew big both in size and importance. The turtle would nap, except when classrooms came into the library. He would gaze out upon the crowd of students, find and hold eye contact with a student, drawing that person closer to the aquarium. Perched on a stone, he would stretch-up encouraging contact.

One of the many kinds of birds seen at Tandy Hills, the Northern Mockingbird is the state bird of Texas. It's known as a mimic of other bird's songs, but can sound like squeaky gates, pianos & barking dogs! A loud and aggresive-territoral bird, the males croon day and night for hours-n-hours in the spring. In the fall both sexes sing to inform and defind their feeding areas. Their range is mostly southern United States and nothern Mexico but is moving northward.